


September Moon

by Chalichi



Category: The Walking Dead & Related Fandoms, The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Western, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Gangs, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:28:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21767608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chalichi/pseuds/Chalichi
Summary: Two gangs who fight each other.What would happen if one person from each gang became friends?
Relationships: Daryl Dixon/Jesus
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> So! I'm back, with a new story. Again. I really just went on and wrote this one to get rid of my writer's block, and hopefully I did a decent job writing it. 
> 
> I got really inspired when playing RDR2 (amazing game FYI, really recommend it!) And this thing was born! I really hope you'll like it!

The sun was finally setting, ending another hard working day in the life of a lowlife. At least in Daryl’s eyes, that was exactly what he was. Hanging around a group of people, killing, stealing, threatening to get what they wanted. That was what he did. What he had to do in order to survive.

”The world is a harsh place, if you wanna survive in it ya have ta grasp every moment.” That was what Negan had told him. The leader of their little group. And wasn’t there any more true spoken words than that? 

  
They had found Daryl when he was around seven, eating a raw squirrel he had found laying on the ground. Blind by a raging hunger not common to man he hadn’t thought twice about it. 

  
”What are ya doing here kid?” Negan's rough voice had asked him. ”Where are your parents?” 

  
Daryl hadn’t been able to say a word. He’d just dropped the chewed on squirrel and backed away from the threatening looking man. 

  
”Answer me!” Negan had said and grabbed hold of Daryl’s arm pulling him towards him.

  
”D-dead.” Daryl had squeaked then, tears welling up in his eyes. ” They killed them. The Crowes.” 

  
”Hmm.” Negan had hummed then, stepping back from the snirveling child. 

  
”The Crowes you said.” another man with a large unkept mustache behind Negan said. ”Told ya boss. Said they were here. But ya didn’t listen!” 

  
”Keep ya mouth shut Stone!” Negan roared, glaring at the man called Stone. 

  
”Right then. Seeing as ya have nowhere ta go, and have gone as far as eating rotting rodents, I think it will be better if yer coming with us.” Negan said, grabbing hold of Daryl’s arm again, pulling him towards one of the large horses behind the small group of people. 

  
”Yer seriously taking a kid with us to camp! That’s crazy! He will attract people to us boss!” a tall and skinny guy piped up, falling into a step behind Negan as he talked. 

  
”I’m aware of the risks Johnny, and I’m willing to take em'.” Negan said, glaring into Johnny’s eyes. ”Now shut the hell up and get on your horse.”

  
Negan turned towards the group if people ”And I suggest therest of you do the same!” 

  
Daryl shuddered at the sheer power of the man’s voice. 

  
*

  
That was fifteen years ago. And he was still with the group of people. Granted many had died of either old age, sickness or shot on a mission. But nothing had changed, new people, same group. 

  
”Ya alright there Daryl?”   
Daryl looked up from the hypnotic dance of the flames in the firepit, his gaze searching towards the source of the voice. 

  
”Dale.” Daryl greeted the old man with a nod of his head. ”M’ fine. Just thinking.” 

  
”Knew something seemed off with ya.” Dale snickered and took a seat beside the younger man who just shoved his shoulder and huffed a laugh at the old geezers joke. 

  
”Speak for yourself. Not like you spend hours writing poems either.” Daryl shot back at him. 

  
”Maybe not, but i do open a book from time to time.” Dale laughed. 

  
”You got me there.” Daryl said and fell into the laughter with Dale. Daryl liked Dale. The old man could get on his every last nerve, but in the end of the day, Dale was a man you could trust with everything. 

  
”Was there something ya wanted? Or you just wanted to sit by the fire with me and watching the sunset?” Dary asked after a few moments of comfortable silence. 

  
”As nice as it is just sitting here with ya son, I did wanted to talk with you.” 

  
Daryl turned his head to the old man to show him he had his full attention. ”About?” 

  
Dale sighed and tossed a small stick he’d been fiddling with into the flames before he started talking.

”Boss came to talk with me earlier today. He said he’d heard rumors about a gang creeping about the outskirts of the woods close to camp. Said he wanted to gather up some of the group and check them out.” 

  
Daryl nodded and fixed his gaze into the flames again. ”Crows?” Daryl asked. 

  
”Not sure. But we don’t want to take any risks.” Dale answered. 

  
Daryl nodded again and got up from the ground. ”Allright. I’m in. Did he say when we’re going?” 

  
”Tomorrow at dawn. So I suggest you get a little shut-eye.” Dale said. 

  
”Sure. Mind tell Boss I’m coming?” Daryl said and started walking away. 

  
”No need! He already knew what you were going to answer!” Dale called after him. 

  
Daryl smiled and shook his head in amusement. Typical of Negan to know Daryl’s thoughts before even knowing himself. 

  
*

  
”Right boys, listen up and listen good, I will only tell ya this one time, if ya miss it it could be a matter of life and death!” Negan eyed the meager group sternly as he rode back and forth slowly on his black steed. 

  
The group contained Daryl, Glenn, Eugene, Abraham and a guy named Morgan.   
”We’re going to scout the woods near drowned man River, there’s where I’ve heard a large group of people been snooping around. We’re going to look carefully, and thoroughly. Don’t wanna make any unnecessary noise, made myself clear!?” 

  
Everybody hummed in agreement, the horses stomping the ground in restlessness, a feeling Daryl could agree with. He wanted to get going already. If the group of people really was members of The Crows Daryl couldn’t wait to shoot their heads off. 

  
”Right.” Negan said, putting his black hat on his head as he turned his horse around. ”Let’s get going then!” 

  
*

  
The sound of hooves upon dry dirt was the only sound that was heard as they rode in unison towards their destination. The sound lulled Daryl back in time, to the time of his first meeting with The Crows.   
He had heard story’s about them as a small child, stories that portaid The Crows as monsters and demons. Demons with black feathers donned upon their clothes as wings and sharp claws made for ripping people apart. That they moved swiftly in the night, killing children in their sleep. Ghost stories for scaring children from walking around alone at night. 

  
Daryl had woken up in the middle of the night from a bloodcurdling scream of terror. He had walked into the kitchen and found his mother on the floor in a pool of blood, holding a figure in her arms. As he walked towards her he saw another figure looming beside her. The figure had black feathers hanging from his robes and hat and his face was hidden with a dark cloth.

  
”Please no… please.” his mother sobbed as she looked upon her attacker.   
Daryl hid behind the fireplace as he watched in terror as the figure raised his arm, a glistening clawlike dagger in hand. It moved swiftly through the air, cutting Daryl’s mother’s throat as if it was made of butter.

A stream of red spurting out of the cut as he heard her gurgling her last breaths.   
The Crow looked over where Daryl stood rooted in terror, eyes wide and mouth agape in a silent scream. He couldn’t move. 

  
”Get out kid before I change my mind” The Crow said as he grabbed hold of Daryl’s arm and dragged him towards the door.   
He got a glimpse of his mother’s unseeing eyes and the figure in her arms. His father, or what was left of him. 

  
”You’re okay there Daryl?”   
Daryl snapped back from the darkest time in his life into presant day. 

  
”What? Ye, I’m fine.” he said and looked over at Abraham that had come up next to him. 

  
”You think we will find any Crows?” he asked, not looking to convinced. In fact had Abraham stated that since activity from the Crows had been low for months he believed that they had moved away. 

  
”Don’t know. Maybe. Negan seems to think so.” Daryl answered. 

  
”I think he wants it to be so.” Abraham said. ”He want's revenge.” 

  
Daryl looked over at their boss as he spoke, ”Might be. But can you blame him? Wouldn’t you want the same?” 

  
Daryl looked over at Abraham again. The man looked sad, and nodded. ”If I’d lost what he has? Yes, I would.” 

  
Daryl nodded, ending their brief discussion. He didn’t blame Abraham for his unspoken thoughts, Revenge makes you act irrationally. But for what Negan had lost, for what he feels, Daryl understood. In so many ways, Daryl felt the same. 

  
*

  
”See anything?” Glenn hissed behind him.

Daryl lowered his binoculars and sighed.   
”Nothing more than the signs of an old camp.” He said and sat down, resting his arm on his knee. 

  
”Shouldn’t we go down there? Look through the camp, search for signs of where they went?” Glenn asked eagerly. The kid was young, eager and irrational. Not a patient bone in his body. Much like Daryl when he was younger. The need to please, make Negan happy, wanting praise. 

  
”Nope. We’re going to stay right here.” Daryl said, watching as Glenn’s face fell into a frown. 

  
”Why? You said the camp was empty.” 

  
Daryl shook his head and sighed. ”I said I didn’t see anything else than the signs of a camp, not that the camp was empty.”

  
”So you did see anyone?” Glenn perked up. 

  
”No. But that doesn’t mean that the camp is necessarily empty, or that the owners of said camp won’t come back. To go down there could be fatal.” Daryl explained to the pouting youth. 

  
”So, what are we going to do then?” 

  
”Stay here, keep watch. Until nightfall.” Daryl said, raising his binoculars once again. 

  
”Seems like a waste of time.” Glenn complained. 

  
”You just worry about keeping anything off my back and stop your whining.” Daryl snapped, growing tired of the younger mans complaining quickly. ”I need to focus.” 

  
*

  
As the sun had climed down the sky and no signs of people had been seen at the seemingly empty camp Daryl kicked at the sleeping Glenn’s boot to wake him up. 

  
”What!?” Glenn said, shooting up into a sitting possition. 

  
”Suns almost down. Let’s go.” Daryl said and started walking down towards the abandoned camp, Glenn hot in his heels.   
”Keep quiet, and keep low.” Daryl hissed. Glenn nodded and kept in behind Daryl. 

As they got closer to the camp Daryl saw movements behind the trees, and heard several twigs snap. 

  
”Glenn…” Daryl began, but before he could shout out to the younger man to go, he heard the first gunshots ring out and about five to seven men came running out from cover behind the trees. 

  
Daryl did the first thing that came to mind and shoved the younger man out of the way towards a large tree. Daryl took cover behind a few rocks hidden behind a few shrubs not too far away from the tree. 

  
He took out his revolver and looked towards the camp and then over at Glenn to make sure he was alright. 

  
”Come out now! We know you’re there!” one of the men called out. 

  
”Glenn!” Daryl hissed, getting the younger mans attention. ”I want you to run. And get help.” he said.

The young man looked at him in shock. The thing was that Daryl knew they were surrounded. The best bet they had was to run, and Glenn was younger, and quicker. So he had the best shot to get help and end the bastards. 

  
”Get Negan and the gang over here.” he said.

  
”But what about you!?” Glenn hissed, looking over att the Crows slowly creeping closer with raised weapons.

Six, Daryl could count them to. Six Crows and two of them. Not the best odds in the world. 

  
”I will try to distract them and run towards the other direction, towards the old Mill. Get Negan and the gang over there.” Daryl said and got up to a crouching possition, getting ready to run.   
”You ready?” Daryl asked looking over at the younger man. 

  
”But what if…”

  
”No objections!” Daryl said and got up and started running.   
”GO!!” He shouted and watched as the young man lept out of cover and ran back towards the rest of the gang. 

  
Daryl heard footsteps behind him, and a few shots fired, bullets barely missing him as they soared right beside his face and landing in the bark of a tree. His legs and lungs were burning and he could taste blood in his mouth from several cuts from twigs and branches hitting him in the face, cutting his lips. 

  
He almost slowed down when he could see the old Mill in the distance, relief washing over him. He could survive this. He really could! 

  
He rushed towards the rotten door and swung it open, leaping inside. 

  
”he’s inside!” a voice outside could be heard.

Daryl took cover behind a few bags of rotten seed, the floorboards creaking underneath him, and he prayed to anyone who would listen that they would hold. Just this once. 

  
”So? Get inside!” Another voice called out. 

  
”No way! That shit will fall down as soon as I get inside. You go. You’re much smaller and don’t weigh as much.” the first voice said. 

  
”Oh for the love of… fine. Go to the others and I’ll finish this dude. I can take him myself” the second voice said.

Daryl hoped Glenn had been able to get to Negan and the gang safe and sound, seemed like most of the Crows had followed Glenn and not him like he’d hoped. 

  
”But the boss will…” the first voice protested. 

  
”I’ll be fine. Go! You’re no use to me now anyway!” 

  
Daryl held his breath as he heard the door open and the sound of footsteps on the creaky floor. 

  
”Come on now. I know you’re in here.” the voice said, while he walked slowly, no doubt checking the empty barrels in the middle of the mill. 

  
Daryl breathed out slowly, steeling himself to combat, muscles tense and his gun and pocketknife at the ready as the footsteps got closer to his hiding spot. 

  
”make things easier for you and me both and just get out. I’m not in the mood for hide and seek.” the man said. ”Might even let you live if you come out now. What do you say?"

  
Daryl breathed in and stood up as the footsteps got right beside him, the stranger jumping in surprise and lashed out at Daryl with his fist, successfully hitting Daryl’s gun out of his hand and shoving Daryl backwards. 

  
The floorboards started really complaining under the weight of the two men, creaking loudly and bending downwards. 

  
”I don’t think they’re gonna hold” Daryl hissed to the stranger, who looked just as scared as he was at the sound of the creaky floor. 

  
”Mayby not.” he said and started pulling Daryl with him away from the rotten boards, but to no avail. The boards snapped with a large cracking sound and the floor opened up, making both men fall down to the basement, landing hard on the floor below.   
  



	2. Chapter two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daryl and the stranger gets stuck. Will they get out, or will they kill each other first?

Panic and pain was the only two things Daryl could feel. He’d hit his head quite hard on the rock floor, the impact increased by the other man landing on top of him, hitting the air straight out of his lungs. 

  
”Fuck” he heard the other man mutter from the other side of the room.After a while. ”The ladder's rotten through.” He said walking back towards Daryl, taking a seat beside him on the cold floor.

Their current predicament had made them take a break form trying to kill each other. Mortal enemies or not, two heads were better than one. 

  
”Guess we have to wait then.”Daryl said, having faith in his gang. They wouldn’t leave him, right? 

  
”For what exactly?” The stranger snapped at him, his eyes glinting in the dim light, voice slightly muffled by the bandana around the lower half of his face.

Come to think of it, Daryl had no idea how his attacker looked like. All he could see was that he had a hat, slightly tattered by time no doubt, and that his hair was long, going past his shoulders. Nothing else, that annoyed Daryl quite a bit. 

  
”For my gang, or yours. Whoever comes first.” Daryl answered, getting shocked by the strangers laugh at his answer. 

  
”You seriously believe they will come back for you?” he asked in mock amusement. ” I bet they believe you’re dead, or hell, they might be dead.” 

  
” Why would they think something stupid like that!?” Daryl asked, getting angrier and more nervous by the second.

  
” What would you believe? If you let that kid you hung out with in here and he didn’t come back?” He asked, looking Daryl fully into the eyes. 

  
What would Daryl believe? Was the stranger right? Would Daryl think Glenn was dead? Would he go back for his corpse? No. Daryl would not. He would leave him, they wouldn’t be able to risk it. 

  
”Shit.” Daryl hissed, letting his head drop to the wall behind him, regretting it immediately when pain flared through his skull. 

  
”Yeah, seems about right.” the stranger muttered. 

  
”What about your gang? Won’t they come looking for you?” Daryl asked, he would take about anything, just as long as he wouldn’t be rotting in an abandoned Mill. 

  
”What do you think?” The stranger asked. That was answer enough for Daryl. ”Fuck!” Daryl hissed and closed his eyes, thinking about ways to get out of this hellhole.

There wasn’t anything tall enough to stand on, and there wasn’t anything they could climb on either. It was an empty room with some rotten grains scattered around the floor. 

  
”You got a light?” the stranger asked and got up, looking for something to build a fire with. 

  
”Got some matches.” Daryl said, taking out a book of matches from his pouch and handing it over to the other man.   
He thanked him and put some of the grain in a pile and some of the rotten planks who had fallen on the floor. He completed it with some pages from a book he had in his bag, luckily getting a fire started. 

  
”We will have to feed the fire more, since the wood is wet.” he said, taking a seat again. 

  
”Mmh” Daryl said, closing his eyes, trying to sort his thoughts out from the pain still pounding in his head. 

  
”Name?” the other man suddenly said. 

  
”Sorry?” Daryl asked, evern thought he’d heard him just fine. But it had been such a surprising question. Why on Earth did this stranger want to know his name?! 

  
” Well, looks like we’re stuck here for some time. At least until we figure out a way to get out of here, might as well get to know each other a little at least.” the stranger explained.

  
”Why? We know that we won’tbe able to be friendly when we get out of here anyway.” Daryl answered, his head turning towards the other man. 

  
”No, although that’s true, I refuse to sit here quietly. Humor me. Well sort out the rest later.” he said, and looked almost pleadingly at Daryl, his big ocean colored eyes shining in the light of the fire. 

  
”Fine!” Daryl said, giving up. What was the worst that could happen? As soon as they got out of there everything would go back to normal. The stranger perked up a little at his answer and looked almost excited. ”You start.” Daryl said. ”Name.” 

  
”Jesus” he said. 

  
”Come again?” Daryl asked, not believing him. 

  
”We all get code names when we join the gang” Jesus explained. ”To protect our and the gangs identity.” 

  
”Understandable. But that means that Jesus isn’t your real name” Daryl said, squinting his eyes at the other man. ”I want your real name.” 

  
Jesus sighed and shook his head, no doubt thinking about it. ”Paul. Paul Rovia.” he said then. ”God, it has been ages since I last said my real name.” he said with a laugh. ”Now you. What’s your name?” 

  
Daryl hesitated, he was scared to give out his name, but then again, Paul/Jesus had done it. Why couldn’t he?

”Daryl. Daryl Dixon” he said after a few seconds, almost forcing the words out of his mouth. 

  
”Real name?” Paul asked. 

  
”Real name. No bullshit, don’t got the energy.” he said honestly. His head was killing him. 

  
”Fair enough. Nice to meet you I guess.” Paul joked. 

  
”Would be nicer not to have your sorry ass landing on me.” Daryl snapped at him, making the other man snort a laugh. 

  
”Thats true, would be nicer to meet under better circumstances.” Paul said, ”You know, not killing each other and all that.” 

  
”Also true.” Daryl said and shut his eyes for a while, just listening to the fire cracking. 

  
*

  
He woke up a few hours later- at least he thought it was hours, it was dark out, the hole in the roof telling that much- to Paul shuffling around, looking for more firewood, settling on more grains and a few more pages from his book. 

  
”Hey.” Daryl said, signaling he was awake. 

  
”Hey yourself.” Paul greeted back. 

  
”You got a hideous scar or something in your face?” Daryl asked after a few minutes of silence. 

  
”What?” Paul asked looking over at him. 

  
”The bandana. You still have it on, that’s why I’m wondering. You got a scar, or some facial deformity or something?”

  
Paul laughed and shook his head, putting his hands behind his head, untying the bandana and pulling it off of his face. 

  
”I see where the Jesus name comes from.” Daryl said, studying the other mans face. He had a straight nose, not too small, not too big. He had full lips partly hidden underneath his neatly kept full beard. Handsome was the first thing that jumped up in Daryl’s mind, drop dead gorgeous was the second thing that jumped in. Daryl cleared his throat and looked into the fire again to keep himself from staring. 

  
”No, no scar. Have one on my shoulder through.” Paul said. ”Bullet. Was meant for my friend, I was in the way.” 

  
”I hate when that happens.” Daryl said, daring to look at the other man again. ”Have a few myself.” he said then to keep the conversation going. 

  
”Really? Where?” Paul asked, clearly wanting the conversation going him too. 

  
”Shoulder, back, leg to name a few. Got one on the side of my head as well, got graced by a bullet.” 

  
”Really? Where’s the other’s from?” Paul asked. 

  
”Got myself cut from a crazy lady I tried to save. Put the knife in my shoulder. Gotten myself whipped a few times on my back – won’t go into that story now.” Daryl said when he saw Paul on his way to ask. After Daryl told him off, Paul promptly shut his mouth again. 

  
”Gotten shot in the leg, and the bullet by my head.” Daryl said, ending his list of injuries. 

  
They talked back and forth about different stories they had. Different jobs they’d done, jobs that had gone wrong. Paul told him about a train robbery gone horribly wrong. 

  
” They couldn’t stop the train. And we couldn’t stop the train, and it kept getting faster and faster, rushing in high speed towards the end station. So, we knew we had to get off, and fast. So we did the only thing we could think off. We jumped off! We were just lucky enough that we landed into water and not the the cliffs underneath the bridge.” 

  
”You lucky son of a bitch!” Daryl chuckled. ”you could’ve gotten yourself killed!” 

  
”I know! But we all got away with minor injuries. A few bumps and bruises. No loot thought.” he chuckled. ”Boss was pissed when we got back.” 

  
They kept on telling stories, Daryl telling him about one time when rats ate upp all the food. ”Had to live off the rats that spring.” Daryl chuckled. 

  
”Wait what?! You ate the rats?!” Paul asked with a disgusted look on his face.   
”Meat is meat. Didn’t have no choice.” Daryl shrugged. 

  
”Yeah I know, but damn.” Paul said, shaking his head in amazement. 

  
*

  
”Your clothes” Daryl said after a few minutes of comfortable silence as he eyed the brown trenchcoat lacking the black feathers all other Crows used to have. 

  
”What about them?” Paul asked when Daryl didn’t continue. 

  
”You don’t have any feathers. Why? Isn’t that like your thing? Scaring people with your appearance or whatnot?” 

  
Paul huffed a laugh and shook his head slowly. 

  
”It used to be. But now only older members still have the feather outfit. Younger members can have feathers, we are Crows after all, but mostly we just have some feathers like on the shoulders of out clothes or whatever. Me personally don’t like it. Makes my nose itch and eyes water.” he said with a grimace. 

  
*

  
Time went on, and both men started getting tired as the sun started climb up on the sky. Daryl’s headache was still presant, although not as severe. 

  
”Don’t think nobody will come for us today.” Daryl said quietly. 

  
”Nope. Don’t think anyone will come at all.” Paul sighed, throwing a small stick into the dying fire. ”Might as well try to get some sleep. We’ll need the energy when we figure out what to do next.” he said and looked over at Daryl who nodded his head in agreement. 

  
”Haven’t got any better idea.” he said.   
Said and done, both men tried to get comfortable on the hard stone floor. They took off their jackets and put the on the floor to protect them from the cold, and used their bags as pillows. They moved as close to each other as they dared to collect as much body heat from each other as possible. 

  
”Good night then Daryl.” Paul said turning around from the other man so that his back was facing him. 

  
”Night” Daryl said, laying on his back, pulling his arm over his face to block all light out. He were asleep within seconds. 

  
* 

  
Daryl woke with a start when he heard Paul trashing around beside him. First he thought that the other man was attacked or in pain. Then he saw that he was still asleep, calling out and trashing around wildly, like he was trying to hit someone, or protect himself. He kept repeating ”no, stay away.” so he assumed that it was a nightmare. 

  
”Paul! Hey, wake up!” Daryl called out to the other man, shaking him gently. ”You’re dreaming, Wake up!” he said, shaking him again, with more force when the other man didn’t react the first time. 

  
”Come on! Wake up…” he said and called out in shock when Paul lashed out and grabbed hold off Daryl’s collar and sat up breathing heavily, a bewildered expression on his face. 

  
”Paul, calm down man, it’s just me. You’re dreaming.” Daryl said calmly, trying to pull back the other man from his nightmare. ”Come on, you’re safe, let me go and try to relax.” 

  
He could see Paul’s gaze soften and feel his grip on his collar loosen as he started to come back to himself again. 

  
”There we go. Better?” Daryl asked, feeling his own pulse slow down to normal again.   
”Think so.” Paul answered, voice thick with sleep. ”You okay? I didn’thurt you right?” 

  
Daryl laughed and shook his head. ”You didn’t. Funny question giving the circumstance though.” 

  
Paul snorted a laugh and leaned back on his makeshift pillow. ”You mean that we’re supposed to kill each other and I was worried about hurting you? Yeah that’s pretty funny.” 

  
Daryl laid back down himself and turned his head to look at the other man. He studied his profile for a while, the shape of his nose, the contour of his lips and the length of his eyelashes. He cought himself staring again and moved his gaze to the dark ceiling again. 

  
”What did you dream about?” Daryl asked. ”Sounded pretty bad.” 

  
He heard Paul release a deep breath and shift around beside him. He looked over at the other man and saw that he was facing him. 

  
”Don’t know if I trust you enough to let you into my dark secrets.” he said and looked nervous for some reason. 

  
”Understandable.” Daryl said. ”Like, you haven’t know me for more than what, twelve or something hours.” 

  
”Yeah, and two of those hours we tried to kill each other.” Paul said. 

  
”Mmmh.” Daryl hummed. 

  
They grew silent for a while, the only thing that was heard was the wind outside, the creaking of the old Mill and their breathing.   
”But.” Daryl started after a few minutes, ”We didn’t kill each other.” 

  
Paul, who had been fiddling with his bandana looked at him in interest, curious at where he was getting at. 

  
”Like, we could’ve carried on trying to kill each other after getting stuck down here, but we didn’t. You ran away trying to find a way out, and I stayed on the ground.” he explained. 

  
”You were in too much pain to be a threat.” Paul said. 

  
”That I was.” Daryl agreed. ”You could’ve killed me easily. But you didn’t. How come?” 

  
Paul looked at him in, looking like he was thinking about Daryl’s words. Because Daryl had been thinking about them as well. How was it that instead of killing each other, they had been getting to know each other instead? Paul was a crow, Daryl should hate him with passion, but he couldn’t. And even though he hated the answer to why he couldn’t hate Paul, it wasn’t no less true. It wasn’t Paul who had killed his parents. It wasn’t Paul’s fault, he couldn’t put the blame on him. He probably didn’t know why Daryl hated the Crows. 

  
”I dreamed of my attackers.” he head Paul say quietly. 

  
”Your attackers?” Daryl was surprised, he bet Paul had been attacked multiple times, what was so special with that one? 

  
”Yeah. You see, I got attacked brutally once. A whole bunch of guys. And I was alone. I was younger and had less experience with defending myself. Almost died that night. Would’ve died if it wasn’t for the Crows actually. Boss found me. Patched me up.” 

  
Daryl hummed, and looked up at the ceiling, his gaze following the dust particles dancing in the sunbeams shining through the cracks in the wood. Paul’s story didn’t sound too different from Daryl’s own. Negan had found him in much like the same manor as Paul’s boss had found him. 

  
”Why?” Daryl asked after a while. 

  
”Why what?” Paul asked, tensing beside him, which made Daryl surprised. Was he scared of something? 

  
”Why were you attacked?” he asked. He turned to look at the other man. He was biting his lip, gaze locked at the wall on the other side of the room. 

  
”Because…” Paul started and paused to take a deep breath and scrub his hands over his face. ”Look, if I tell you this, you can’t judge me okay?!” 

  
Paul looked intensely at Daryl, challenging him. 

  
”I don’t usually judge people for stuff, can’t see why what you’re about to tell me will make me act differently.” Daryl said, meeting Paul’s gaze, making the other man relax a little. 

  
”Right, good.” Paul said and took a deep breath. ”I got attacked because the people of my home town figured out that I… prefer the company of men.” He looked over at Daryl, mapping out his reaction to what he’d just said. 

  
”That it?” Daryl asked. ”Your friends and family almost killed you because you enjoy to share your bed with men instead of women?” 

  
”Well, yeah.” Paul breathed. ”Most people don’t like that.” 

  
”Yeah, well I know.” Daryl agreed. ”I don’t care. I know two men who are together. They got a few angry looks at first, but now nobody really cares.” 

  
”Yeah? That’s great!” Paul said then, breathing out in relief. Daryl himself chose not to tell Paul about his own thoughts about his sexuality. Tha fact was that he himself had a raging suspicion that he actually preferred both genders, but men mostly. He figured that Paul didn’t need to know that. Wasn’t like they would see each other again anyway. Not on friendly terms that was. 

  
”Well that was intense. Thank you, for not getting angry or whatever.” Paul said, smiling at Daryl, genuine gratitude visible in his eyes.

  
”Don’t mention it.” Daryl said, retuning the smile. 

  
*

  
After a couple of hours of waiting, and no one showing up both men knew that they had been right. No one was coming for them. Their water ration was getting low and the heat from the sun told them that they wouldn’t survive for very long without it. 

  
”How’s your head?” Paul asked Daryl. 

  
”Hurts when I move too fast, but other than that it’s fine.”

  
Paul nodded and got up from the floor, stretching his back and started studying the hole in the ceiling. 

  
”Like we knew, no one will come for us, so unless we really do wanna die down here, we have to find a way out.” He said. 

  
Daryl got up and stood beside Paul, and looked around the area for anything to climb on. 

  
”Yeah.” said when he couldn’tfind anything at all to stand on. ”Guess we have to find another way out somehow.” 


End file.
